Monthly Archives: June 2017

Thanks to the Bent Yellow Fruit Law of Journalese — which prohibits repeating an important word in one sentence — the use of magnate, as in “real estate magnate” to identify Donald Trump, has became a reporter favorite in recent years. It’s Trump as a magnate magnet. Thus we see people identified as magnates in just about every business and enterprise in the world: casinos, autos, brewing, construction, energy, aluminum,… Read Article →

A Law of Journalese requires that when a modifier is used one or two times, it must always be used in the future. Thus, parking garages are hulking, neighborhoods of immigrants are tight-knit, an old town’s streets are cobblestoned, a blue-collar district is gritty, a boarded up store is an eyesore, anywhere something once took place is historic, and if anyone ever mentioned it, it is storied. What got me… Read Article →

“Strategize” is one of those corporate BS words that has been adopted by reporters, and allowed by editors, to be used in news stories. Strategize sounds more serious and far more important than scheming, planning, thinking about, yakking, mulling, plotting, figuring out, or dozens of other words that are used in everyday speech. We do not define strategize in our dictionary but we do define a “strategist” as: “A hustler… Read Article →

Have you ever heard someone say, “We’re poised to go the beach”? Or a shop-owner say, “We are poised to have a spring sale.”? Probably never. “Poised” is classic journalese, most commonly seen in headlines, to mean that someone is getting ready to do something. The dictionary definition says the verb poise means “to weigh mentally, ponder” or “to balance” or “to keep steady.” Nothing about planning or intending to… Read Article →

A favorite journalese verb is “to grill” when it doesn’t mean slapping a steak on a grill in the back yard, but meaning tough questioning, usually by police or prosecutors. (Reporters, however, never grill anyone. They ask hard, in-depth questions in an interview.) A real groaner of the standard grilling usage was in this Boston Herald headline, June 19, 2017: “Top Chef star on menu for grilling in Teamsters trial.”… Read Article →

The lack of copy-editing is international, at least in free countries. Illustrations of this are seen regularly in the “Blooper” page of “Journalisten,” the publication of the Swedish journalists’ union. In its issue, 8-9, 2017, I found this one, attributed to Dagens Nyheter, the nation’s largest morning daily: “Attacker mot muslimer som anklagas for äta nötkött och lågkastiga indier har skapat oro för ökad intolerans och hotad yttrandefrihet.” My translation,… Read Article →

A sacred Law of Journalese is that rumors must never be identified as rumors. Instead, they are disguised as unidentified sources’ theories, speculation, possibilities, or an observer’s views, with the observer being an anonymous taxi driver who said something smart-ass that the reporter agreed with, or, most likely, the reporter himself or herself. The Associated Press broke the Law of No Rumors on June, 2, 2017, in a news story… Read Article →

This isn’t journalese, but a great letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, May 30, 2017: Everyday scofflaws? Stop the presses Wow. Front-page news — Boston police are not giving out jaywalking tickets! No kidding — the police do not help pedestrians cross the street. You’re on your own. What are those bright, hard-working Globe editors going to inform us about on the front page tomorrow? I can see… Read Article →